An Unexpected Answer
by more-than-melody
Summary: There was a long silence. "No," came the unexpected reply. "It was a boy I once knew." Rebecca bit back her surprise. "A boy?"  Set in Ishbal, slight RoyxRiza


Disclaimer: FMA is not mine.

Song: Suffer Me - Matchbox Twenty

_But she wasn't like that then and_

_he wasn't like that then_

_They were everything, everything they need_

* * *

"Who taught you to sew like that?" Rebecca asked, glancing gloomily down at her own crooked, uneven stitches that ended in a tangle of thread. She stole a peek at the row of tiny, neat stitches that were rapidly closing the hole in the shirt sleeve of her new friend. The cadets were supposed to be mending their worn clothing and cleaning their gear, but she seemed to be making things worse.

Rebecca's friend looked up at the question, a look of mild surprise on her face. Mild. That was a good word to describe her. In the four weeks Rebecca had known her, she had never done anything but what was expected. Her emotions were muted, almost. She wasn't particularly passionate about anything, and she never lost her temper.

When she saw the mess Rebecca had made, a soft smile split her face. The expression was unfamiliar to her features, as rare as rain in this god forsaken desert.

"Do you want some help?" she asked. Always polite. Avoiding the question as easily as she avoided anything else.

Rebecca sighed. "It keeps tangling up," she complained. At that her friend smiled again.

"I can fix that," she said, closing her eyes as though remembering something. "Do you have a candle?" Bewildered, Rebecca dug through her things until she found a short stub of a candle. She was handed an already threaded needle, with a neat knot tied at the end.

In her soft voice, Riza showed Rebecca how to run the thread across the top so that the thread was coated faintly in wax.

"What does this do?" Rebecca asked. The other woman's reply came after a slight pause.

"It keeps the thread from tangling," she said. "Now, try to keep your stitches the same - smaller and closer together. That will come with practice."

"Where did you learn all this?" Rebecca asked, half concentrating on her sewing. "Your mother?"

There was a long silence.

"No," came the unexpected reply. "It was a boy I once knew."

Rebecca bit back her surprise.

"A boy?"

"Yes. You see, his mother was quite skilled as a seamstress, and" -

"Were you in love?" She hadn't meant for it to slip out, honestly, but there was something in Riza's voice - a touch of old emotion, buried for too long - that compelled her to ask.

Riza rolled her eyes.

"Our romantic relationship was regrettably one sided." She let out a long sigh.

Rebecca couldn't help but grin.

"Ooh, unrequited love! How tragically romantic!"

"You are something else, Rebecca. It's undoubtably the result of all those romance novels you read." However, it had drawn a smile out of her, a full grin, a change of pace for the stoic young woman.

"How'd you meet him?" Rebecca asked, unable to resist.

Riza was silent and she stared down at her hands as though debating whether or not to answer. When she did, every word seemed to part with her reluctantly.

"He was my father's apprentice for six years," she replied.

"Apprentice?"

"Mhm. My father was an alchemist." Riza looked away and Rebecca frowned.

"Was?"

Riza sighed. "He died several years ago."

They sat in silence for several minutes. Rebecca watched as a gap in the fabric closed rapidly under her friends fingers.

"What was his name?" Rebecca asked softly, her curiosity finally getting the best of her.

"Who? My fath"-

"No, silly. The boy."

Riza smiled, lowering her eyes.

"I don't know..."

"Please?" Rebecca pleaded. "Please, I won't tell anyone! Besides, there's no way I'm ever going to run into him, and if I did, I promise I wouldn't say anything!"

Riza laughed, shaking her head.

"But you've already met him, Rebecca. You met him a week and a half ago when we were assigned to our new units."

Rebecca eyed her suspiciously.

"Riza, what are you talking about?"

Riza just smiled.

"Riza!"

"Oh, fine. He's the new state alchemist your group was assigned to."

Rebecca gasped, all thoughts of her sewing long abandoned.

"Mustang? Rooooy Mustang? You're kidding, right?"

Riza shook her head.

"He's sooo handsome! It's no wonder you liked him!"

Riza sighed, a familiar sigh that made it very clear that she was used to humoring her friend, despite the fact that they had only known each other for two months.

"When you're quite finished gushing over something that never existed in the first place, come and find me," Riza said, effectively putting an end to her friends rambling. With that, she rose and left the tent the two of them shared. Rebecca stared after her for a long minute.

She was beginning to think that there was more to her new friend than she let on.

* * *

This is actually pretty old - I found it when I was cleaning my room. I like the idea behind it, but overall it's just too silly I think. I didn't really get it to say what I wanted it to. As usual.


End file.
